Esther Mikaelson
Esther was one of the most powerful witches in history. She was a major recurring character and a primary antagonist in the second season of The Originals. She appeared in the third season of The Vampire Diaries as a recurring character and a main antagonist. Esther was, for a brief while, a vampire, while possessing the body of the witch Lenore, and was forced to transition without body jumping into a new witch host. She briefly became what she hated the most, a vampire. Freya kills Esther while in Lenore's vampire body, but is later brought back to life, in her original witch body, from a spell by Davina. The spell was intended to bring Kol back to life in his Original Vampire body, but Elijah replaced Kol's ashes, which were needed for the resurrection spell, with Esther's ashes, as he needed Esther's blood to make a weapon to kill his aunt Dahlia. The spell successfully brought Esther back to life in her original witch body. Esther is the wife of Mikael and the former lover of Ansel. She is the mother of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik. Esther is the sister of Dahlia and the grandmother of Hope Mikaelson and an Unnamed Grandson. During the third season of The Vampire Diaries, Esther was revived thanks to the efforts of Bonnie Bennett and Abby Bennett Wilson. She planned to kill her children, linking them together and stripping them of their vampirism. Her eldest son, Finn, willingly helped her. To stop Esther's plan, Damon Salvatore was forced to kill Abby and turn her into a vampire, unlinking Esther from the Bennett witch line. Esther later helps Alaric Saltzman develop a dark, murderous, vampire hating alter-ego. She then turns him into an Enhanced Original Vampire for the purpose of hunting down and killing the rest of her children with the indestructible White Oak Stake she crafted with his Gilbert ring. Alaric kills her soon after when his original personality briefly regained control after waking up in transition, stabbing her to save Jeremy and Matt from her magic attacks. It is revealed in The Originals, that Klaus has been holding onto Esther's coffin. In New Orleans, when Klaus and Elijah helped Sophie Deveraux become an Elder, they offered her Esther's body. They consecrated Esther's remains, which later backfires, allowing her to revive herself in From a Cradle to a Grave and possess the last Harvest girl, Cassie. She also revived Finn and Kol, placing them in the body of two witches - Vincent and Kaleb. In the second season of The Originals, Esther seeks to convince her children to give up their immortal lives and become mortal again. Finn willingly helps her and Kol follows his own agenda, eventually joining Klaus' side. Esther body jumps from Cassie to Lenore. In The Map of Moments, Esther's witchcraft is stripped after Rebekah put blood in her wine. Klaus eventually returns to her, informing her that she is no longer a witch and is now a vampire. Esther forms an alliance with Mikael and Finn, in effort to kill Klaus and his allies. After reuniting with her eldest daughter, Freya, Esther aids her and Klaus in saving their sister Rebekah from her body host, the witch Eva Sinclair. After doing so, Esther is cold-heartedly executed at the hands of her daughter Freya, as punishment for giving her over to Dahlia a thousand years ago. In ''Ashes to Ashes'', following her last resurrection, Esther is forced to participate in her children's plan to kill her sister, Dahlia. After begging with Dahlia to end her misdeeds, Esther allows herself to be killed together with her, by Klaus. Esther is the matriarch of the Mikaelson Family. Pre-History Early Life/The Middle Ages Esther was born in a witch family in the Kingdom of Norway some time during the 10th Century. Esther had an older sister named Dahlia. It's implied that Esther was close to her mother as she would later tell her son that her mother taught her about the starling bird's tune. She was once close to her sister but they had differing outlooks and different points of view which caused them to grow apart. Despite being born from a powerful witch bloodline, Esther was not interested in the practice of magic after meeting Mikael, who swore to protect her, unlike her sister, who devoted herself to the Black Arts. Esther favored being a wife and a mother and at some time her village was slaughtered by Vikings, with Dahlia and herself being the only survivors due to their witch powers. During her captivity, she met and fell in love with a Viking warrior and wealthy Eastern European land owner named Mikael, whom she married. However, after almost a year of marriage, she was still unable to conceive a child. As she didn't practice magic, she came to her sister Dahlia for help. After Esther discussed her issue of being barren and unable to conceive, Dahlia agreed to help her sister by casting a fertility spell which would help her to conceive and get pregnant. Esther soon fell pregnant and gave birth to a daughter Freya, her first born child. She later had another child, a son named Finn. From this moment, she lived happily with Mikael and even fell pregnant with a third child. However, during her third pregnancy, Mikael temporarily left for a voyage and Dahlia asked to have Freya taken away. Esther tried to stand up for herself against Dahlia but Dahlia told her that fate decided that Esther will not have children. But they changed it and now Esther had to pay; by giving all the firstborn who will come from her bloodline (grandchild, great-grandchild, etc). Esther swore to have her magic back, to gain immense power and to make Dahlia pay for what she had done. But her sister mocked her, threatened to take all of her children, including Finn and the unborn Elijah. Dahlia took Freya away while Freya screamed for her mother. When Mikael came back, Esther told him that Freya had died from the Plague. They decided to leave their homeland to come to the New World. She gave birth to her third child Elijah but regardless, Esther was still devastated by Freya's "death". Mikael, still mourning his child's "death", became cold and estranged from his wife. At this time, Esther had met a young werewolf leader named Ansel and she fell in love with him. She began the construction of a Moonlight Ring for him. Soon, she fell pregnant with his son. However, she came back to Mikael, and forbade Ansel to be near his unborn child. She later gave birth to a son that Mikael named Niklaus and the birth helped to bring them together as a family once more. They would go on to have three other children: Kol, Rebekah and Henrik. She later made a bird Necklace to make her son Niklaus weak and to prevent him from killing someone, which would trigger his werewolf gene. This became even more necessary when Mikael became abusive towards Klaus as he thought that his son was weak. And she became obsessed with the idea that Klaus always has to hold the necklace. In the New World, Esther began to practice magic once more and became the best friend of the powerful witch Ayana (a descendant of Qetsiyah and an ancestor of the Bennett bloodline) who was also her mentor. At some point, Niklaus and Henrik came to see the werewolves transformation during a full moon and Henrik was mauled by a werewolf from Ansel's pack. Klaus took his brother to Esther but it was too late and Henrik tragically died. Later, Mikael asked Ayana for help so that they could make all of their children immortals but Ayana refused. As a result, Esther ended up performing The Immortality Spell herself by using the blood of Klaus and Elijah's lover, Tatia (a doppelgänger and descendant of Amara and a member of the Petrova bloodline) that would transform her family into the first known vampires. However, the spell had complications and prices that came along with it. She had to make Daylight Jewelry for them and she had watched them feed and kill innocent humans all for the consumption of human blood. When Klaus finally killed his first human, he triggered his werewolf gene and later transformed, killing and slaughtering many people. Knowing from then that Klaus was not his biological son, Mikael forced Esther to suppress Klaus’ werewolf side, which she had done by using the blood of Tatia, whom Elijah accidentally killed. She was then killed by Klaus who choked her to death and put the blame to Mikael. After she died, Esther's body was preserved and placed in a coffin by her witch friend, Ayana. Esther's spirit however, was forced to watch her children wreak havoc on the world from the Other Side and feel the pain of every victim as nature's way of punishing her for her actions. Throughout The Vampire Diaries Series Season Three Throughout The Originals Series |-|Season One= |-|Season Two= Personality |-|Witch= Esther was a devoted and loving mother to her children prior to them becoming vampires. She wanted the best for her children, and fearing they would die because of the werewolves, she used a spell which turned them into vampires. Unlike Mikael who was hard on Klaus, Esther treated him like the rest of his siblings, and occasionally defended him against Mikael, telling the latter that Klaus only means well when Mikael went to confront Klaus, who was sparring with Elijah, but she never tried to stop him from humiliating or from physically/emotionally abusing her son, it is likely she was afraid to challenge her husband when trying to defend Klaus; however, this is proven to be untrue, as the reason why she never challenge Mikael, she valued her marriage towards her husband more than one of her own children, this also reveals that she was a horrible mother, if anyone of her children were physically abuse by her husband, would not lift a finger to protect them from Mikael, she even created a Starling Necklace that would not only weaken Klaus' untreated werewolf strength, but it also took away his will to fight back, which made her son a victim to Mikael's abuse. She was capable of being deceptive and was willing to do whatever it took to fulfill her goals despite facing the consequences. She was a skilled liar, and was far from a forgiving person, which ultimately caused her to attempt to kill her own children. It is unknown if Esther knew killing her children would wipe out vampires but this likely wouldn't have deterred her from doing so, regardless of whether any of these vampires fed on human blood. However, her plan to kill the Originals required turning them human first, its unknown if vampires would remain connected to their progenitors had it worked. She also tried to kill Jeremy and Matt, knowing full well they were only there to protect Elena. She was ruthless in her goals but still admitted to loving her children but acknowledged that they are monsters who have killed countless innocents and all because she made them immortal. She created vampires, which are considered abominations to nature, therefore, she would stop at nothing to correct this mistake. Despite her sometimes ruthless nature, her actions stems from a good heart. She believes she cursed her children to become abominations and genuinely believes vampires are evil, and wants no human to suffer at the hands of them. Esther is delusional, she believes that everything she has done including the fact that she once tried to kill her children, is for their own good, she is also a hypocrite, as she blames both Elijah and Klaus for Hope's death, when she was the one who ordered her granddaughter's death in the first place (unaware that Hope is still alive). No matter how harsh it is, when Klaus tells Esther that she is the monster who made the Original Vampires who they are, it is actually a true fact. According to Finn and Klaus, Esther is a very smart strategist and skilled in making people suffer, traits she passed on to several of her children, including Klaus, despite this, she can sometimes underestimate her children. Esther was extremely immoral, as she took over the body of Cassie, later Lenore without the two latters consent; against their free will, even attempted to put Rebekah into the body of Camille, without any consent from the two latters. |-|Vampire= Esther looks very desperate and confused, now she is not witch, a vampire that is in transition, making her impotent against her sister Dahlia or any other evil, that may want to harm her family. Without her powers Esther needed to make an important decision, die or become what she hates most. When Esther completed the transition, her son Finn accused her and called her a hypocrite for giving into temptation. Esther seemed to have no remorse for becoming what they both hated and tried to defend herself by stating that she only drank the blood and implored to Finn that though she was still his mother. Finn merely replied with hatred and stabbed her with the blade to channel her power. |-|Ghost= Even as a ghost, Esther is set on eradicating the world of the vampires she created a thousand years ago. Upon learning about the existence of her granddaughter, Esther ordered the witches of New Orleans to kill Hope at all costs. Like before, Esther genuinely believes that what she is doing is right and for the greater good. Physical Appearance Esther was a tall, slim and beautiful woman in her late 40's, somewhere between 47-49. She has long natural blond hair and brown eyes. She had a fine facial features, which testified to her Scandinavian origins. She did not use makeup in 10/11 century, but after returning to the life she began to emphasize her beauty. Long, flowing dresses she turned on aristocratic dress - her taste alluded to taste of her husband and children. Freya and Rebekah greatly resembles her, inheriting the pale skin and blonde hair along with features. Powers and Abilities |-|Witch= Esther is amongst the greatest and most powerful, dark witches in history, due to her various acts of great significance to the future, mostly negative. Over her short life in the modern times, during her mission to end her children, Esther has demonstrated various feats of great power. During her time in the afterlife, she still had great power, though only usable as long as her talisman in the living world remains intact. It was also Esther's power that allowed Sophie to complete the Harvest, a ritual that renews the power of hundreds of witches by reconnecting them to their dead ancestors. She managed to perform a spell from the dead to give Vicki a foothold in the world of the living, making her a corporeal soul, though her magic was undone by Bonnie who sent Vicki away. Esther used this and then opened a wedge between the worlds, which allowed various ghosts with unfinished business to return. Bonnie managed to undo this spell as well by destroying Esther's only link to the living, her talisman, though it fixed itself immediately, much to Bonnie's surprise. 1,000 years after her death, Esther managed to resurrect herself in her preserved body, though only by channeling all of the Bennett witches, including Qetsiyah. She was able to link the original vampires with wine laced with Elena's blood, though the spell was reversed by Bonnie later on. Esther even planned on curing all of her children in the end to kill them as humans, though due to Abby becoming a vampire, she lost her connection to the Bennett's and started dying. After faking her death, she possessed Rebekah though she quickly returned to her body afterwards. Though, the feats that made her one of the most powerful witches in history belongs to the past. Her most powerful spell to date and possibly one of the most powerful in history was the creation of vampires, by drawing on multiple sources of power, such as the sun and the white oak tree. Despite being warned against doing so, she tapped into dark magic and performed the spell, giving a rise to a predatory species that spread throughout the world like a plague. She repeated the same spell a 1,000 years later on Alaric, making him stronger and faster than her children, though she bound him to Elena, therefore, she was his only weakness. After failure to hide her affair with a werewolf, Esther was forced to curse her own son by suppressing his werewolf side. She is also known as the creator of the moonlight rings by combining various spells into one and also created the daylight rings, used as protection against the sun. She even managed to make an indestructible white oak stake, by using the essence of the ring created by Emily Bennett. She was also capable of perfect control over human bodies against their will, shown when she almost killed Matt and Jeremy by turning their bodies against each other, though she was stopped by Alaric. Her latest act was self-resurrection, though more in the form of possession when instead of the last Harvest girl being resurrected, only her body was, though it was inhabited by Esther's spirit. She even performed the same spell with her sons, Finn, by invoking his soul into the body of a resurrected witch named Vincent and Kol, by invoking his soul into the body of a witch named Kaleb. Esther's power is incredibly strong given she managed to control the literal species of the souls she places in new bodies as she was able to change Kol and Finn's (Original Vampires's) spirits into new bodies and they were 100% witches as they didn't possess any of their vampiric qualities shown by Klaus in Season Two while possessing Alaric confirmed as they didn't need to be invited into any houses and they retained witch powers while also never compelling anyone or healing as Klaus had, proving just how skilled and powerful Esther is, which also reflects just how powerful her elder sister Dahlia is as compared. According to Elijah, she is also a master of possession, with evidence provided by her possession of; Rebekah, Cassie, and now Lenore. She was able to not only overwhelm the consciousness of each of the other women, but able to leave them unharmed. According to Klaus, Esther was also highly proficient in the art of producing magical talismans. She was responsible for rendering the last remaining White Oak Stake indestructible, as well as for gifting a young Klaus with an amulet that purposefully weakens him and thereby prevent him from ever triggering his Werewolf gene. And being the one responsible for turning her husband and children into Original Vampires, she was also the first to manufacture Daylight Rings. She even found a way for Werewolves to harness the full strength of their curse by means of the Moonlight Rings. Though she didn't get the chance since Mikael killed her Werewolf lover. It wasn't until the 21st Century did Esther manufacture the Moonlight Rings. However, Esther was not always the great and powerful witch as known to the supernatural community. Instead, it was recently revealed that what led Esther to improving her power and tapping into dark magic again was the loss of her first-born child, her daughter Freya whom she had to give to her elder sister Dahlia, a much more powerful witch at the time as a part of their bargain. On that day, Esther angrily promised her sister that she will rise in the black arts and become a powerful witch in order to avenge her daughter, despite her achievements, Esther's powers and abilities are still inferior to her older sister Dahlia. |-|Vampire= For a time, Esther had been turned (indirectly) by Rebekah into a vampire. Esther possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a non-original vampire. Weaknesses |-|Human/Witch= Esther had the typical weaknesses of a human/witch. |-|Vampire= However while she was possessing Lenore and became a vampire she had the typical weaknesses of an non-original vampire. Relationships *Esther and Finn (Mother and Son/Former Allies/Enemies) *Esther and Kol (Mother and Son/Former Allies/Enemies) *Esther and Elijah (Mother and Son/Enemies) *Esther and Rebekah (Mother and Daughter/Enemies) *Klaus and Esther (Mother and Son/Enemies) *Rebekah and Esther (Daughter and Mother/Enemies) *Hayley and Esther (Family/Enemies) *Esther and Dahlia (Sisters/Family) *Esther and Elena (Enemies) *Mikael and Esther (Husband and Wife/Enemies) *Esther and Freya (Mother and Daughter/Former Enemies) *Bonnie and Esther (Enemies/Former Allies) Appearances Season Three *''Ordinary People'' (Flashback/1st Death) *''Bringing Out The Dead'' *''Dangerous Liaisons'' *''All My Children'' *''Heart of Darkness'' (Also possesses Rebekah Mikaelson at the end) *''Do Not Go Gentle (Also possesses Rebekah Mikaelson at the beginning/2nd Death) Season Six I'll Remember (mentioned) The Originals Season One *Always and Forever'' (Flashback) *''From a Cradle to a Grave'' (Possessing Cassie) The Originals Season Two *''Rebirth'' (Possessing Cassie) *''Alive and Kicking'' (Possessing Cassie) *''Every Mother's Son'' (Flashback/Possessing Cassie & Lenore Shaw) *''Live and Let Die'' (Possessing Lenore Shaw) *''Red Door'' (Flashback/Possessing Lenore Shaw) *''Wheel Inside the Wheel'' (Flashback/Possessing Lenore Shaw) *''Chasing the Devil’s Tail'' (Possessing Lenore Shaw) *''The Map of Moments'' (Possessing Lenore Shaw) *''Gonna Set Your Flag On Fire'' (Possessing Lenore Shaw/Neutralized) *''Exquisite Corpse'' (Possessing Lenore/3rd Death) *''City Beneath The Sea'' (Flashback) *''Ashes to Ashes '' (4th Death/Final appearance in the series) }} Name *'Esther' is a female Persian name (استر) which means "star" or a Hebrew form of the Persian goddess Ishtar. In the Old Testament, Esther is the name of the Jewish queen of King Ahasuerus of Persia who save her people from the wicked plans of Haman. Trivia *Esther was the best friend of another witch named Ayana, an ancestor of Bonnie Bennett. *Rebekah says that Esther is the Original Witch but she's not the first witch. **Her name is a title. The Original Witch stands for the Witch of the Original Family of Vampires, not the first witch ever. Her husband Mikael, and son Niklaus have titles, the Original Vampire Hunter and Original Hybrid respectively. *Esther's symbol is the European Starling just as her sister's is the Woodland Merinda Dahlia. ** Both symbols were prominently used to pinpoint Hope's location by their respective witches. *Esther has died four times in the series and all her deaths were violent. *At some point after the Originals left New Orleans, Klaus retrieved his mother's body and placed her in a casket with his siblings, albeit Klaus or Esther locked the coffin mystically to either keep Esther in, or to protect Esther's body. *Esther created the spells for both the Moonlight and Daylight rings. The Moonlight ring came first as she created it for Klaus' biological father. *Nature will not permit Esther to rest until all vampires are gone. *She is the main antagonist of Season 3. **She is also the only main antagonist that does not appear during the final 2 episodes of a season. *She is the first Caucasian female witch to be shown on the TV series. *She is the second oldest Caucasian witch to be in the TV series after Silas. *Esther's Grimoires, currently in the possession of the Mikaelson family, are the oldest known grimoires in existence, older than Emily Bennett's Grimoires by over 600 years. *Esther invented the unlinking spell using a sanguinal knot. *It's probable that she knew about Qetsiyah, Silas and Amara's existence because she used a variation of Qetsiyah's immortality spell. *She appears to have the closest relationship with Finn, however she deemed Klaus to be her most special child. *According to her daughter she was the most powerful Witch in history. **Esther corrects her own daughter's statement when she is revived through Cassie by saying she was only one of the greatest witches to ever live. *After her consecration into the Ancestral fold, Esther became the leader of the Ancestors and by extension most of the living witches of New Orleans. *She was often referred to as The Original Witch due to being a member of the Original family of vampires. *Though not initially aware that her husband, Mikael was revived as well, Esther discovered his resurrection in Wheel Inside the Wheel. *Both her second death and second resurrection occurred in a cemetery. *Esther is said to be a master in skill of possession, a skill she has shown on a number of occasions; possessing Rebekah, Cassie, and currently Lenore. *In Red Door, Esther is seen drinking tea for almost the entire time, which fits with Kol calling her 'as mad as a hatter'. *Many believed that Klaus ripped Esther's heart from her chest with even Esther herself telling Elena that Klaus tore her heart out, though she could have simply meant metaphorically in the sense that she felt as if Klaus had ripped her heart out. However, it was revealed in Wheel Inside the Wheel that Klaus choked her to death. * Esther is the second parent in the Originals to be turned into a vampire by their own child. In her case it was her daughter, Rebekah. ** The first was Hayley Marshall by her daughter Hope Mikaelson. *All of her children have some sort of disdain to her; except Henrik who is dead. **Elijah, Klaus, Kol, and Rebekah all hate her for trying to kill them. **Finn thinks she's a hypocrite for becoming a vampire. **Freya hates her for sending her away as a child. *She is reunited with her sister Dahlia in ''Ashes to Ashes''. *In ''Ashes to Ashes'','' she is temporarily resurrected to defeat her sister. *Esther is once again killed by her son in [[Ashes to Ashes|''Ashes to Ashes]], this time by being stabbed instead of being strangled. *Esther is the second grandmother shown onscreen, Sheila Bennett being first. *Esther was revealed in ''Wheel Inside the Wheel'' to have initially been barren, a problem fixed by her older sister Dahlia. **In the same episode she was also revealed to have come from Norway. *In ''Exquisite Corpse'', she learns that both her granddaughter and her daughter were alive instead of dead like she originally thought. **Both of these pieces of information were also revealed to her by Klaus. Videos Gallery References See also Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Recurring Characters Category:Season 3 Characters Category:The Originals Characters Category:The Originals Season One Characters Category:The Originals Season Two Characters Category:Antagonists Category:Protagonists Category:Mystic Falls Residents Category:New Orleans Residents Category:New Orleans Coven Category:Mikaelson Family Category:Supernatural Category:Witches Category:Deceased Category:Help Needed